RSC Challenge

Last Saturday of the month and I have all but two of my February 9-patches done.  Still have a few days to finish up the month, and also a few I still need to do from January.  I try to make one 9-patch each day, and on a few days 2.  If I keep this up, by the end of the year, I should have enough to make my Jack's Chain quilt.

Anxious to see what the color for March will be :)
Teresa

Hand basting vs Long Arm Machine basting ?

I recently had my first experience with having a long arm quilter (LAQ) machine baste my quilt for hand quilting.  It is a queen size quilt and I was not looking forward to the back breaking job of hand basting, also wanted to make sure there were no wrinkles or puckers in the backing.  The LAQ did a really nice job of the basting and only charged $60, which included her furnishing the batting.  I thought that was a good enough deal.

I discovered two things that did not work for me with the machine basting.

1. She used a white thread and my quilt has a lot of white background...sure made it hard to see to remove the basting stitches, which I like to do once I have the quilt in the hoop.  This was really my fault, I should have asked her to use a grey thread.
2. I found that once I hooped the quilt, removed the basting stitches, the bobbin thread would get all tangled up in my underneath hand - like a spider web.  Since my hoop is on a stand, I could not easily clip the bobbin threads.
3. So I tried quilting the next area hooped with the basting left in place.  But then when I tried to remove the basting after quilting, my quilting in many place had snagged the basting threads and it was a real chore to remove the basting thread.
4. I tried getting under the hoop to clip the bobbin thread, but that was awkard and once I clipped those thread, it seemed to me that the other basting thread all started coming undone.

I quickly realized this was not going to work for me and this was too big a quilt for me to be aggravated with that bobbin thread the entire time.  So I took two days to hand baste the quilt top and then once hand basted, I removed all the machine basting. 

 Have any of you hand quilted a machine basted quilt in a hoop on a stand, and if so, how did you handle the bobbin thread?

Now another question.  I will be hand quilting all the white spaces and border for sure.  But, I am considering machine quilting the straight lines along the Irish Chain blocks. 

Have any of you combined machine and hand quilting?  Would a quilt show judge frown on the combination?

Just curious.

Still working on the RSC 9-patches for my Jack's Chain quilt.  This month is Blue/Green fabrics.  So much fun and I am having a relaxing time making them,

Also completed another English Paper Pieced Star of Bethlehem block.  That makes 4 blocks made, 8 to go for my quilt.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

Quilting my Irish Chain

 
 
 
 
 


 Today I started quilting my Irish Chain quilt.  I find hand quilting so relaxing and am enjoying the start of this new quilting project.  This quilt has EPP Dresden plates and I wanted to quilt them a with something different than quilting around the edges of each piece.

The pattern I cam up with in a scallop around the outer edge of the plate that echos the Dresden blades.  Then an inner scallop row with a circle in the middle. 

 

 

I finished one plate today.

And here is how the back of the quilt is looking.

 

I think I am going to like this pattern.  There will be other designs in the blank spaces, but for now this should keep me busy.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

 



A Finish and another on gets hooped

Tonight I finished hemming and putting on the hanging sleeve on the my Winter Wreath quilt.  The pattern is from the September and November, 2015 issues of the AQ magazine.  The pattern is entitled Harvest Wreath and is done in Fall colors, but I wanted mine to be in jewel tones.  I also modified the pattern to use machine paper piecing, rather than the regular machine piecing used by the designer. 

I know I am going to enjoy this wall handing for years to come.  Seems the house always looks so drab after all the Christmas lights and glitter get packed away, so hopefully this one will bring some color and joy to the house on these dreary winter days.  (Although, lately our Winter days have been warm temperatures in the 70's and seem more like early Spring.)


Close up of Quilting in the center



48" Square quilt 

So now my hoop is empty and I always seem to have another project in the queue waiting to be hooped and hand quilted.  Here is my Irish Chain that I started in 2007 (I think) and finished in 2016.  I English Paper Pieced the dresdens (6") and appliqued them to the quilt.  Some of the white spaces were left open to allow for hand quilting some wreath type designs.  I am looking forward to getting started on this one, but know it will be awhile before it will be done.  But then...I am in no rush.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

2017 RSC Feb 4





I got started on time this month with my RSC 2017.  I was fortunate in that I have a separate bucket for blue/green fabrics as I never could decide whether to put them with the blues or greens.  I decided I would make one block a day and since this is the fourth I have 4 made :)  I have also been working to catch up on my red ones from January sine I got a late start on those.



 

My sweet husband has been cutting out he 1 inch squares from card stock for me since I am English Paper Piecing these.  I found on Amazon a 1 Inch hole punch so he is pretty happy about that. I am making a Jack's Chain quilt with these and need over 2,700 little squares!

 

Heres my fabric color chart updated for February.  I cut out enough squares for each day of the month plus 2.  My goal is to make one 9-patch a day, plus a couple of times during the month I will make two.  That way, but the end of the year, I will have enough to make the Jack's Chain quilt. 



Thanks for stopping by,   Teresa